News and Updates

I see that the King has been prevented from going to COP27 in Egypt next month.  That’s to say, he was advised against it by the government and he's taken the advice. What a pity. You have to wonder why...

On Monday, in the NAEE weekly news round-up, there was a short focus on the new DfE ministerial team which you can see here.  The Rt Hon Kit Malthouse MP is the Secretary of State for Education Kelly Tolhurst MP is the Minister for...

A month ago, I wrote about the bizarre market for widgets; that is, for electricity.  It began: "Suppose you were in the market for 20 widgets.  You might put out a call for makers to submit prices.  So far so...

Finally, the company that supplies my electricity has told me how much per unit I will have to pay from October for the next two years.  This is much less than the scary (pre-subsidy government announcement) forecasts from OfGem, the...

Last Friday, I gave a brief input to the launch of Teach the Future's review of the English National Curriculum for key stages 3 and 4.  This covers subjects ranging from History to Art and Design, and uses a tracked changes...

When state-owned monopoly businesses were privatised in the 1980s and 90s, I welcomed most of them as I thought that it might free up the investment needed to modernise the enterprises and make them more responsive to customers.  After all,...

I alternate between being irate and apprehensive about the rising cost of electricity.  Irate at the hopeless communications we've been faced with where no-one bothers to explain the "price cap" clearly.  Apprehensive at my own personal coming liabilities and those...

According to the Times Higher, Kemi Badenoch MP, the Tory leadership contender who recently said that “some universities spend more time indoctrinating social attitudes than teaching lifelong skills or how to solve problems” is set to be education secretary in...

Suppose you were in the market for 20 widgets.  You might put out a call for makers to submit prices.  So far so good. Now suppose one maker offered you 19 at 2p per widget, but that was all they...

As part of the BBC's celebration of the birth of Philip Larkin, 100 years ago, there was a series of programmes where poems were "road-tested" by Simon Armitage who travelled the country trying out poems on various audiences. He took...